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This thread is to be used for discussing the first season of Umineko no Naku Koro ni... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, speculation on the possible DVD only bonus episodes, etc., etc…

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:

General impression of the series.

Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.

Thoughts about the animation quality.

Will there be additional DVD only episodes and what will they contain.

How did the anime compare with the game?

Characters/Character Design

What the show meant to you.

What could the creators/animators/writers could have done better.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Ooh, I personally absolutely loved Umineko to death.
I liked the art and story, and didn't care about what they cut out and all. It was the best of 2009 for me
Animation Quality: 9
Voice Actors: 10
Script: lolwut
Adaptation from Game: idc
Editing: 10
Overall:99/100. I took one away for a reason that is-They did take alot of stuff out, but I don't really care, but I still take one away

Wonderful. I already typed out my entire ramblings for this season, so let me post them now.

Spoiler for Best and Worst of the Series:

Best Arc - Adaptation wise: Banquet of the Golden Witch (EP 3)
Hands down the best arc adapted. Very minimal things were cut and it was generally a good arc from start to finish. I think the lowest point for this arc was episode 14 (when Eva finds the gold), but even that episode wasn't horrible overall.

Best Arc - Art wise: Alliance of the Golden Witch (EP 4)
If you look at this arc you'll see it has the least amount of QUALITY or generally bad art in it. Although quality went up and down it wasn't completely terrible, making it the best art wise.

Best Arc - Music wise: Turn of the Golden Witch (EP 2)
Although music wise isn't usually a category, considering that this anime is an adaptation of a sound novel I thought it only be fair to include a category like this. Generally good tracks were used, both originals and game remixes (Moon, Requiem, World End Dominator and Dread of the Grave).

Best Arc - Script wise: Legend of the Golden Witch (EP 1)
They eliminated what they needed to and despite the rushed pacing it was a decent arc adaption.

In my opinion these three episodes were the best in overall values. They were enjoyable, entertaining, consistent with the storyline and had the best display of emotion. Swindles had the right emotion in it, Fools Mate is probably the most properly adapted episode in the entire series and Queening Square was entertaining (yandere kyrie I love you) despite the cuts and slight changes they made.

Now even though 26 made me rage very much, Adjourn lacked emotion, proper impact and cut a lot out, where Sacrifice at least kept to the original material as much as possible. I'm not even talking about Goat-kun here - the episode in general was just bad. Pacing was off, deaths were inconsistent and it was inconsistent with the storyline. Back Rank Mate had awful pacing, because they decided to put in Shannon's fight with Beato into that episode when it should have been in episode 10, and it was generally not one of my favorite episodes. Blunder was in the top 3 originally but I decided to excuse it, if only because the rush pacing of that episode made for a very good 5th episode and they still managed to keep things consistent as possible.

Best Female VAs:
1st: Ohara (Beato). No words can describe how much she amazes me. Although I always liked Beato she was never really one of my favorite characters. But Ohara's performance alone changed that for me. I was able to picture how Beato talks and acts even better thanks to her and it's probably one of the best things that came from the anime.2nd: Tanaka (Kyrie). Kyrie has always been one of my favorite characters, but I simply loved how Tanaka handled her. She knew when to be logical and smart, but also displayed Kyrie's malicious and caring side as well. I've always liked her, since the old days when Ghost in the Shell arrived and she voiced Major Motoko, but her performance as Kyrie is probably one of the best performances she's done since her role as Motoko.3rd: All the Stakes VA's. Picking just one out of the seven was too difficult. The Stakes had no strangers to the industry (Yonezawa, Hikasa and Toyosaki) but also had newcomers/first major role VA's as well. And all of them were just wonderful in their role. The voices were perfect - menacing but also had the right touch of immaturity, since you have to remember that despite being ruthless demons they are technically suppose to be teenage girls.Other notable VA's: Mariko Mizuno as Siesta 45, Ami Koshimizu as Rosa, Kikuko Inoue as Virgilia and Yuki Kaida as Gaap.

Best Male VAs:
1st: Ono (Battler). When I first heard Ono as Battler in a preview drama track a good few months before the anime aired, I was pretty unsure. He didn't sound like Battler to me at all. But now I can't imagine any other voice suiting Battler. It has a rough sound to it, but at the same time it can give a playful side and a sadder side (even though the awful directing didn't give him a chance to show either sides much).2nd: Koyama (Rudolf).Ore wa Jack Bauer Besides the Jack Bauer jokes I did enjoy Koyama voicing Rudolf. It sounded odd at first but I think he wasn't completely accustomed to voicing someone as old as Rudolf. Still he got use to it and Rudolf's character was truly brought out. Since the anime didn't get a chance to show Rudolf's playful side as much, I especially enjoyed hearing him in the 2nd Drama CD Omake Track, where he truly brought out Rudolf's sly dog personality and his sniveling 'oh god don't kill me kyrie' voice was just so perfect. Although he mostly does dub voices for movies and television series, I do hope to see him more in the anime industry, even if it doesn't pay nearly as well.3rd: Sugita (Ronove). Moving past the 'Ono and Sugita, Itsuki and Kyon, etc etc' jokes, Sugita did very well with Ronove. He truly brought out Ronove's personality and didn't make him sound too flamboyant or too rough, but found a very nice balance with the character. Truly one of my favorite VA's.Other notable VA's: Yusa Koji as Amakusa and Mugihito as Kinzo. Ryukishi make more major male characters!

Favorite Anime Remixes:
1st: Mortal Stampede Remix. Simply no question about it. Since I listened to it I haven't been able to understand WHY it was not used at all. It's an amazing fight song and it stayed true to the original sound, pumping up a bit more of the trumpets and trombones for the song. It would have been a perfect track for the Jessica and George battles.2nd: Happiness of the Marionette Remix. Similar to the Mortal Stampede remix this is a beautiful recreation. Again they brought out the orchestra and it sounds like a song to be used in a royal ceremony, similar to Evatrice's succession. Simply beautiful. Why was it used only once.3rd: Requiem Remix. A beautiful recreation - it's not nearly as overwhelming to me as the original and it gives a good feel. I enjoyed it very much.

Favorite Characters (Adapted into the anime)
1st: The Siestas. To tell the truth I was never a big fan of them. They had their moments but generally weren't my favorites. But wow the Anime Siestas > VN Siestas. Much more animated and have more antics than serious time. Although a lot of those fun scenes were cut in EP 4 sadly, including the carrot and useless bunnies joke.2nd: Beatrice. I think Beatrice had a very proper adaptation. They put in many hints of her being the good guy and generally captured her character as a whole very well.3rd: Maria. Similar to Beato they captured all of Maria's moments. Although they could have toned down the creepy faces just a little bit more, I wouldn't judge based on those faces and rather the general way she was written into the script. Maria has never been one of my favorites, but the anime just brought her to life for me as a whole.

Worst Characters (Adapted into the anime)
1st: Battler. He was done very well for the first arc, but after that it kinda went downhill. Constantly angry, constantly serious. Battler DID laugh with Beato and he did get along with her to some degree. The anime just made him angry angry angry throughout it all.2nd: Kinzo. Okay seriously the guy doesn't JUST yell for Beatrice. He does do other things and he does still have some air of power and charisma. They pretty much reduced Kinzo to an old man yelling for Beatrice all the damn time. He got better in EP 4, but that's only because he had to become better.3rd: Jessica. She's not my favorite character, but wow did they just make her so mellow. No crazy outbursts, no constant anger at the killer. Just not a good fit. The characterization got better as the anime went on, but too little too late.

I give it 7 out of 10 even though I think it was just average because there aren't that many *better* shows, specially VN adaptations to compare to.
The animation was pretty good although it kept degrading through the series.
The Voice Actors were awesome. Specially liked Kinzo, Battler, Kanon, Jessica, Ronove and Beatrice.
As a standalone, its story is appreciable I guess but it hurt the feelings of anyone who has read the novel I bet, and I am no exception.
If it wasn't for the beyond crappy ending, I would have given it a 8. despite those holes in the characters and totally annoying exclusions from the game. The last episode was an epic failure.

BTW, hi everyone, I decided to stop being a silent stalker and make some posts

Animation Quality: 7 - It was ok overall, but the quality in some episodes had "rushed" written all over it. Alliance did a good job of improving this though.

Voice Actors: 10 - These were the best part of the Anime. The voice actors did a stunningly good job. Especially Ohara (Beatrice) and Ono (Battler).

Script: 6 - Could've been better. While they did keep several good lines, a lot of good/comical ones were taken out. But it was good overall I suppose.

Adaption from the Visual Novels: 4 - Do I really need to explain? They took out a lot of good/comical scenes, and they also took out a semi-important one (in my opinion, anyway. Said scene was the adult discussion in Banquet).

Editing: 4 - same as adaption explanation.

Overall: 6 - Meh, it was average. It went from decent to suckish to great to bad. Not that great, but I've seen worse.

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Little Busters!

Last edited by Tomoya-kun; 2009-12-31 at 20:26.
Reason: Wow, I hit the wrong number. I'm smart.

Higurashi is probaly my favorite series of all time. I'm quite aware that it was not a good adaptation, and had terrible artwork with questionable direction but it had enough screwiness and lovable enough characters that key moments were emotional ones that would be remembered. A good story can have you rooting for the characters to win! But for the most part, if you said Higurashi was good in spite of Deen and was too good to ruin, I could just go with that.

So along comes Umineko, and Kon Chikai/Deen are at it again. Did they get their shit together this time? Or perhaps at least make it a good standalone show? The result is well... questionable.

The story of Umineko challenges the reader to think on another level. Sometimes we think we know everything and become complacent. Our world view does not change, so once we see something out of the ordinary, our world falls apart and we try to reason it. When we can't find a reason, we often will succumb to the first meaningful explanation that appears. But the easy way out can't be taken; you will have lost! Umineko isn't Higurashi, and it's not right mindset to have.

Umineko initially started out pretty boring. It's understandable that the huge cast would have some flat characters, but most of them just seemed so pointless. I didn't even get to know most of their names into some way halfway through. For the most of the first half of the season, save for the end of the first arc, episodes consisted of Event A,B,C,D as if the script writer were just reading off a list and here they go! The transition from scene to scene is just not very good. Though they eventually get better at it.

And that's just how I felt about most of the characters. There were just plot devices being moved along by the plot. It became the character attachment of a typical crappy horror movie. Sure what happened to them may be pretty nasty, but anyone can make some random character die horribly. I need to be compelled to care about a character before I give a damn about them. However, the anime does a better job in the third and fourth arcs and thus the show became enjoyable to watch.

The best developed character out of the few that mattered (not in terms of boobage mind you) is Beatrice. She starts off as a generic villain, but as the series goes along we get to see many facets of her personality. Yes she is evil, but she's also devious and playful. In the late part of the season, we see that she is more than just a psychotic killer. While her ruse in episode 3 did get a lot of hate from me, it's revealed that not all of it may be fake. By the end of the fourth arc, we come to the realization that she doesn't want to play anymore, and is most likely being coerced. We also learn that nobody is on her side. Bern and Lambda are against her, and the family wins if Beatrice loses. Beatrice can not win and she's one of the most pitable characters in the story.

Our male lead Battler has a little development, but for the most part he remains rather generic aside from the pervertedness. But I must show my respect for anyone that makes vulgar jokes when he sees his aunt being forced to eat his own cousin. That was probaly his defining moment for this season. We now realize that giving up is not acceptable and there is nowhere to run.

He seems to have hit a wall in arc 4. Maybe because it's not concerning him too much, but he seems to lack emotion, though it could be expected due to all the crap that's already happened.

Maria... ugh. She was probably meant to be more sympathetic that she appeared in the anime. Indeed, those ridiclous faces and Deen's obsession with portraying her as a relative of Light Yagami pretty much failed miserably, and wasn't scary at all. Except some points in the 4th arc, when we realize how crappy a mom Rosa really is. The Rosa torture scene is indeed disturbing, but extremely effective in showing how broken Maria really is. Who would have known you could make a character more interesting by developing them?

George, Jessica, Shannon-- They are likable and aren't made of cardboard. But that's all I can say about them.

Eva/Eva-Beatrice is an interesting twist that happened as Eva seems to be torn apart in a fight agianst herself. She also seems to be plagued with guilt in the fourth arc. Eva-Beatrice is even more sadistic than Beato, and is pretty effective as a villain, but she lacks Beato's elegance.

Ange/Stakes-- While some might have found the start of the 4th arc to be boring, I found that to be really good as we finally have something that actually matters. Her interaction with the stakes is probably the high point of the series, and the epic slaughter in the penultimate is one as well.

The mystery. lol wut? Umineko's anime plot is quite the trainwreck as mostly I'm wondering what the hell was the point of most of the stuff. Indeed, the leaving out of details may have hurt it a lot. Most jarring is Eva appearing to just randomly solve the epitaph. Near the end was the worst The final confrontation had virtually no red text which means most of it is pointless. Wtf?? I'm sure it's solvable in the VN, but pretty much impossible from just watching the anime.

The ending was plain abysmal. Despite having one of the best previews ever, it had such a lack of emotion that it might as well have never existing. Especially Ange's death. Given all the time spent building up her character, you'd expect a dramatic exit with an angry Battler rising up to win for real this time. You'd expect something sad and memorable. That's not what you got here though. This alone knocks the anime down an entire point for me, much less the incomprehensible garbage that was the 2nd half of the finale.

Soundtrack was nice, and they actually used the awesome tracks from the VN, unlike Higurashi. Unforunately, as I've heard from VN readers, they weren't well used, and a certain god track was just left out. The OP is wonderful, the ED is funny.

The voice acting is great and why you should watch the series. Beatrice's VA did a exceptional job. CONGRATULATIONS made me fall out of my chair and rewind.

Overall: 6/10 I felt the show was more entertaining to watch for the 2nd half, and it had enough wtfness to keep me going. So I would say it was time well spent watching it, even though some of it was spent facepalming. The unacceptable ending drags it down a bit, and as with most other shows I give a 6 to could have been great with more effort. I'd like to see more of this, though it will probably be with another studio, which I'm sure others here would love. I do not want to see the When the Cry anime franchise to just end here.

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Let us start here from Square one. No... from zero.
Back in my day, you had to come up with your own trolls instead of posting an image macro! You kids have it easy! Avatar/Sig courtesy of TheEroKing
Guild Wars 2 SN: ArchonWing.9480 MyAnimeList || Reviews

As usual, my AS series review can be sort of longwinded. Please bear with me.

So, as some people might know, I'm in charge of Witch Hunt, the translation group of the VN ever since its creation back in February 2008. With that "intro", you can expect me to be well versed with the original franchise... and perhaps too much.
Indeed, I won't deny that my position wasn't making my anime enjoyment anything easier, but I certainly believe that as a VN reader, my critics so far were done in order to point out the inherent issues that should have been addressed, without putting the said adaptation to any more shame or praise than necessary.

Without much ado:

1) Image Quality:

1.1 Sakuga
The art style was, to be plain, not exactly what I expected.
It isn't about "good" or "bad", but rather how it was difficult to imagine the characters at the start with the first rough sheets (especially Battler, who still look extremely different to his original incarnation in my eyes). That wasn't much a problem as the characters were easily recognizable, but still the "aura" or "vibes" were definitely not the same, or lacked the emotions (or perhaps Ryukishi was really doing too much with the expressions?).

Anyway, aside of this point which was a plain demonstration of my preferences, the Sakuga themselves were really not consistent. To me, the designers were extremely basic in term of handling the designs of the characters, often abusing still shot and far zoom camera pan to decrease substantially the level of detail.
If it was just for this, it would be fine, but for some reasons, those who were in charge of the design were... probably fans of large breasts.
Let's be honest, yes female characters were gifted by Ryukishi in the original game, however, the proportions and chest inflation were beyond a joke. I really couldn't stop face palming at the sight of Natsuhi, Eva and Kyrie's balloons, almost as big as their head, breaking... what, E Cup?
Likewise, the men weren't really spared and it seems the old curse from Higurashi kai happened once again: they became quite strong built, but it seems their head wasn't accounted in the budget. Because of this, it isn't really rare to see Rudolf and Krauss with abnormal body frame, as if they were transformers or megazords in flesh.

The cousins were spared of this, except perhaps Jessica in few instances (yes, I'm talking about Episode 5, and its instant framerate X2 increase for some breast jiggling), and Maria's psychotic faces that were totally overdone (VN readers can confirm they weren't intended to be like that and latest episodes prove Maria is nowhere close to facial distortion).

Just to add the insult to the injury, the consistency is often at stake, without trying to pull a pun: the Stakes often got their hair color or even hair style swapped within bare few seconds within the same episode (especially that scene with the Stakes being obliterated by Ange).

Finally, the real regret I had with the design was the utter lack of emotions: most characters had stiff expressions and didn't really show their anger, sorrow and so forth.
It was even more noticeable in the last episodes, with Ange being basically indifferent to Battler's existence denial, Beato's reaction towards Ange's intrusion or Battler "rage" in the last episode... perhaps this is more like a script issue instead, which will be developed later on.Aside of the characters, the architecture of the mansion and its scenery were fine, though the colors in general were awfully dull. I know it isn’t as close as Hinamizawa, but the lack of proper gradients minimized use of rich colors (Red, Yellow, etc) don’t help in that dull impression.

1.2 Animation
Now that makes the whole Sakuga problem even worse, as basically the animation was alienated by (un)intelligent abuse of camera pan. The problem is that it doesn't compliment the efforts they have done, when the only moving thing is the only character speaking, or the camera itself (the legendary "sidewayyyy" abuse in Episode 1 arc).
I will not deny few things were well animated (such like Kanon VS Lucifer in Episode 3 arc), but it is quite saddening that their budget was kind of fixed on breast jiggling and very rare key scenes.

In short
In that regard, I really think Higurashi Kai was superior in both design/image and animation departments.
I would still give a "decent" score for this, as I can see they didn't go as low as cabbage love or whatever kind of mockery.6/10

2) Sound Quality:
2.1 Voice ActorsProbably one of the few strong points of this adaptation: the plethora of Seiyuu.
As a lot of people around, I was quite skeptical about Beato and Battler's seiyuu assignments’ back at the start, but in the end, it wasn't that hard to be accustomed.
In fact, there weren't many characters that didn't feel right.

I can only say that Siesta 410 voice is basically atrocious (and unfitting), Rosa just sound too young even after 26 episodes (but excellent outbursts), Kinzo lacks of "class" still (for me, of course... I guess I still have Wakamoto in mind), George... not enough "Tommy" like (Mikiya!! )
Meanwhile, I loved the Stakes voices (minus Asmodeus), Battler, Natsuhi, Krauss, Ronove, Beato and of course Bernkastel (Yukarin :3)

2.2 Opening / Ending
The opening was quite nice, but I think the flow was kind of broken... I guess the momentum break at "nakanai de" was bit overkill to me, but it certainly fits very well the franchise.

The ending was perhaps a better highlight for me, considering how it suits so well Kinzo .
If it wasn't for the crazy parts of Episode 4, I guess the impact would have been much more lessened.

2.3 Inserted Songs
There was unfortunately none. It isn't bad per se, since there were only 1 inserted song by Episode arc in the VN, but I think it wouldn't have been a problem for them to add these. Not really a minus point, it isn't like they are more important than the next point...

2.4 BGM
...now that is probably the only red mark of the sound department here.
As you know, Umineko is exactly like Higurashi: a VN, but more precisely, a sound novel. Their main strength is the mood enhanced with the SFX but mainly the BGM.
And this is where it doesn't look that good: the person in charge of the composition didn't exploit the excellent OST of the game.
Truth to be told, Umineko has good anime original tracks, which is a far cry from those shamelessly recycled in Higurashi, but most of them didn't feel completely fitting with the scenes they were used in.
But that wasn't that much of a problem, since these weren't used in a bad way.
The problem however is how they misused the original tracks. I guess this opinion is shared, but I really think someone at DEEN HQ had a big obsession over "suspicion", to the point it is used like at least thrice per arc, which is extremely jarring so to speak.
Using the bad track isn't only the sole issue here, but also how some tracks weren't given justice due to the timing... I think the first twilight discovery is enough to realize how it was really badly timed but also too low.

Some key scenes were seriously affected by the lack of such BGM, to the point the mood might be totally different (I think almost everyone can agree regarding dreamenddischarger for the very "battle" in Episode 26, or dir for Ange's death).

This is really the true negative point in this section that does have a certain weight...

In short
If it wasn't for the BGM issue, they could have almost get the max score. However, they still did a decent job, despite there were a lot left to be desired regarding the BGM.
8/10

3) Script:
This is probably the biggest issue of this anime. Basically, the whole ordeal of the characters wasn't really smooth in term of pace and content.

3.1 Characters:
The characters were basically a "watered down" version of their VN selves in most case that I often wondered if it was really an adaptation.

I acknowledge that it is by no mean practical or feasible to have every detail or character developments. That's a pure given.
However, aside of possible cuts, my main problem is how some characters are void of emotions or their characteristic TRAITS.

Jessica is the prime example of this: she is not exactly shown as the rash and tsundere girl around.
Episode 1 and Episode 2 were quite the proof of it: she was basically quite "generic" without her characteristic burning passion. Because of this, her "development" in Episode 4 wasn't exactly convincing, even with VN knowledge. It didn't need any character development, but plain traits used. Therefore, the lack of cold shoulder and "rants" over her parents don't give emphasis on the heartwarming effect of the scorpion charm with Natsuhi. Likewise, the struggle with Kanon in Episode 2 arc doesn't seem exactly as problematic, when Jessica just soak what Kanon said and let him leave without protesting (which doesn't help her supposed "you are human!!!" comment).

But as I mention the characters traits (affecting characters like Jessica, Gohda, Kumasawa etc), the problem is the lack of emotions that really put all the empathy almost to 0.
Episode 1 and Episode 2 first twilights were quite a letdown: you have a blunt shock, then almost nothing has happened (especially Ep2, until the kids show up). That trend was kept thorough the series, even in the end. I personally wasn't happy how Battler was kind of "shocked" at most when Ange was bleeding, then ultimately dying. Serious? yes. Enraged? no.

It is really difficult to "care" about characters when they don't exactly feel human, and this is exactly what's happening with Umineko, especially when it comes to corpse’s discovery in general.

This is why both points combined leave me a sour aftertaste regarding the characters.
Umineko is nowhere close to be a plain carbon copy of "and then there were none" with an otaku disguise: against the usual and cold detective story mood, Umineko sets so many layers of depth and subtle details with a giant cast of characters.
Thus, it is quite disheartening to see most of them as good as bunch of dolls or "read the script" pole. Even with the Seiyuu best performances, they can't outmatch the letdown if they are told to say a line without much aftermath behind.

3.2 Story progression
A very debated point, that's for sure.
As you know, Umineko really suffered a lot for its jarring pacing. Of course, it was "thanks" to its gigantic size and level of details. However, it has to be said that the scripters and series composer were kind of goofy regarding the pacing and things to be given, and that more than once.

Because of this, a lot of events and details felt quite disjointed, and due to some details missing, it is actually hard to connect the dots regarding some characters' reactions (the lack of Kanon's self admission regarding his love for Jessica + Furniture/human in Episode 2 intro was quite a problem to understand why he turned her down, etc).

And of course, some events don't exactly make much sense without VN knowledge (gapgapgap for instance...)

In short
They certainly were affected by the overall number of episode for this season, yet I think budget and time constraints don't mean scripters can't have any creativity to overcome this kind of issues. Most cuts were needed indeed, but some could have been made in a different way, without losing much in the process.5/10

4) Adaptation from the game
Aside of that huge debate regarding Episode 25, Umineko didn't exactly have its best share of pacing, that certainly cost a lot of details in the process.

And by no mean these details were small. Of course, we can just ignore details like Kanon being a weak boy unable to carry a bag of fertilizer. I mean details like red truth.
I mean... does it make any sense that Beatrice starts to say in Episode 3 that she "already confirmed" the death of the first six, despite it didn't happen in the anime?
Likewise, why Hideyoshi's testimony wasn't in red? How about the whole list of "death"?
Episode 4 was basically the straw: if we suppress the lack of "Beato's counter offensives" the whole issue is that the anime doesn't provide enough information to the watchers.
Was it too much to make Beato say "Kanon is dead" despite Piece Battler didn't find his corpse? Likewise, how about the last riddle, when Battler is about to be killed, but not in red? How a watcher is supposed to know if it is a fact that can be trusted?

This is where lies the most problematic issue regarding the adaptation, all categories alike: the consistencies and clues.
So many red were removed altogether without any proper justification, but it goes worst when Episode 4 is totally screwed up with a mess in the murders.
And this is probably the sole mistake that I think any VN reader has the rightful right to rant like no tomorrow: no matter how they miss character developments, BGM or whatsoever, they ought to give the minimum and CORRECT clues/hints/murders setup due to the plot nature of Umineko.
And again, to add the insult to the injury, they managed to omit important red truth that are part of a plot twist and resolution in Episode 5. Without this red truth, it is 100% impossible (no exaggeration) to adapt Episode 5, unless they edit it to the point it is not an adaptation.If you add the issue regarding the characters, it is just more salt to the wound. The only saving grace is like what Marion mentioned in her review: Beato was well adapted... which wasn't exactly the case for Battler...

In short
And in that regard, I can hereby say that the scripters failed. Not totally, but they really messed up a lot of things that it is really impossible to buy that Ryukihi supervised them. At the very best, he just guided them for few points and then the scripters had a field trip.
And that point doesn't help much with the aforementioned points.3/10

Conclusion
This adaptation of Umineko no Naku Koro ni wasn't a total disaster, but it wasn't far from it either.
Crippled too much by a very uninspiring direction and poor choices regarding budget and the like, the series was basically a mere digest display of the true story, which is unlikely to be the purpose of an "adaptation".

Even if the series could be considered as a standalone, the glaring mistakes and lack of proper time management don't make it any more "suitable" for non VN readers.

Quite a disappointment for me, there is no need to hide that.5/10 - below average

This "essay" is of course my only opinion, and I don't pretend to get an appreciation more worthy than anyone else's.

I'm not a fan of writing big, long-winded reviews, and I think Klash has touched on many of the points I have in mind, anyway.

Suffice to say, I feel like between the tasteless "fanservice", complete butchering of the mystery (especially in the final battle where just making the text red would have helped substantially), completely bland action scenes (when I know DEEN can do better based on F/SN... never mind the overall quality of that adaptation), tone problems (see the epilogue of EP2), and animation errors (including the overuse of Mariaface), I couldn't begin to think that the animators had actual respect for the source material, which is truly unfortunate.

As an adaptation of the SN, this doesn't even begin to fly. The mystery is completely ruined.

As a first introduction to the series (with a view to pointing people toward the games), this is only moderately successful. I've seen people claim that it's a Higurashi rehash. Anyone who's actually played the games would know this is far from the truth, but based on the anime itself, I can't blame them.

As a supplement to the SN catering just to the fans, it still disappoints. As mentioned, the action scenes just fall flat, and doesn't begin to represent DEEN's best. Cans of mackerel and the random addition of "gapgapgap" are NOT a satisfying callout to existing series fans. The anime's strong point (had it been something "for the fans") should have been in the action scenes, at least compared to the SN and manga, and this just didn't happen.

I think that the anime aimed at all three of these goals in an indecisive manner, and in short, it quite frankly fails at all of them. And now that it already exists, any hope of a better adaptation is effectively dashed.

A wonderful mystery anime. I'm almost shocked this was made by the same group as Higurashi... I wonder if they really want the audience to try and solve everything in a logical manner, with girls flying around and turning into spikes and people teleporting around in the most entertaining outfits.
Well, I'm sure they can answer everything with "It was just a delusion."
Heck, it couldn't even turn into horror, with overdone face distortions that only brought laughter.

Either way, I'd give it a 1/10 for being so disappointing as a person looking forward to a mystery, but I'd say 4/10 because it was so entertaining as a comedy. Too bad 11eyes beat it there.

2nd season?
......
Heh.
No, I was just laughing over the dragon in the last episode, that's all...

__________________

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-R.I.P. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Gaming wouldn't have been the same without you (9/19/13)

The animation... normally, this would not bother me in a series (Higurashi's sure didn't), but there were so many glaringly obvious problems, like Genji's shirt being transparent in an early episode, or changing hair colors for the Stakes, etc. I've seen worse, but not too many.

Voice Actors: 9

Ah, the high point of this series. The voice actors really did a great job for the most part, and all of them fit the characters to almost exactly how I'd thought of them in the VN, save Beatrice (who I got used to pretty quick). The only reason this isn't a 10 is because they really, really lacked emotion in some of the key scenes in the series. However, this seems to be a directing problem and not a VA problem, because in things like the drama CDs for the same scenes, they're fine.

Overall, a solid cast.

Music: 6

What happened here? The VN series known for having awesome music and we get... either terribly butchered versions of songs from the VN, bad original music (for the most part, there's 1 or 2 decent ones), or ones that just plain don't fit the scenes.

I'm horribly disappointed in the music aspect of this series. It's just plain pathetic, but what IS there and IS matched up well is enough to save it from being abysmal.

Adaptation from Game: 1

What. The. Fuck.

That's all I can really say here. I've not seen an adaption this terrible since the Tsukihime anime. Not explaining crucial parts of the plot, leaving out tons of character development, changing character personalities, cutting short or screwing with the best scenes in the series, and leaving out important red text... it's just beyond terrible. A 1 might even be too high. I and many others have ranted so much about how absolutely horrid this is as an adaption, so I'm not going to go back over it here.

Either way, I'm very, very sorry for anyone that watches this anime and does like it enough to read the VN afterward, because it spoils all the surprises, and doesn't even do ANY of them well.

Overall: 3

My score isn't an average, because I don't think I can fairly judge the story, characters, etc by the anime alone since I know their VN counterparts and they're so different. Instead, I'm rating the overall on just how I feel about the series and how much I enjoyed it. Quite frankly... I didn't. This is the only anime series I've ever said "Thank god it's over" to, and I hope to hell it is for good.

A word: First, let me clarify I have not read the VN. Aside from some scenes I caught on Youtube, I don't know much about the VN Umineko.

Animation Quality: 8

I really like how the characters were drawn. It really was a beautiful Anime. I know a lot of people have issues with the animation, but I honestly didn't even notice the things I've read in this thread. I liked the coloring, the Golden Butterflies were especially pretty.

I HATED THE MARIA FACES. PLEASE IF THERE IS SEASON TWO... OMIT THEM.

Voice Actors: 10!!!!!!

I don't need to say anything. You can just hear the wonderful talent provided by the entire cast. I don't speak Japanese, but none of the voices seemed out of place. Ronove was my favorite. Beatrice would be my second. Virgilia is a third.

Script: 5-10 (varies)

Sometimes the dialogue seemed dull. Especially in the final episode where everything should have been keeping me on the edge of my seat. Even finding out that Kinzo was dead didn't shock me when it should have. :/

Adaptation from Game: ????

No clue.

Editing: 1

The last Arc was BORING, UNEVENTFUL and LAME. Ep 25 was entirely about Ange doing errands. I know they are probably key to solving the mystery... but it was such a yawn fest. In all honesty, I don't remember anything about Arc 4 except George and Jessica own each other, Ange gets the shit kicked out of her and Battler is apparently completely wrong with all his blue.

Average = 7-8

Only worth watching for the music + voice acting... well all the episodes were interesting to me except those associated with Arc 4.

A wonderful mystery anime. I'm almost shocked this was made by the same group as Higurashi... I wonder if they really want the audience to try and solve everything in a logical manner, with girls flying around and turning into spikes and people teleporting around in the most entertaining outfits.
Well, I'm sure they can answer everything with "It was just a delusion."
Heck, it couldn't even turn into horror, with overdone face distortions that only brought laughter.

Either way, I'd give it a 1/10 for being so disappointing as a person looking forward to a mystery, but I'd say 4/10 because it was so entertaining as a comedy. Too bad 11eyes beat it there.

2nd season?
......
Heh.
No, I was just laughing over the dragon in the last episode, that's all...

Sounds like you STRONGLY need to read the Visual/Sound Novels since that has the mystery you're looking for, it's not even close to being as simple as "Just denying everything, problem solved!"

Moving past the 'Ono and Sugita, Itsuki and Kyon, etc etc' jokes, Sugita did very well with Ronove. He truly brought out Ronove's personality and didn't make him sound too flamboyant or too rough, but found a very nice balance with the character. Truly one of my favorite VA's.

Are you serious? No, I can totally agree with you that he's a good VA.

But still. Brought out Ronove's personality? That hysterical laugh instead of 'pu ku ku'?
Dude, even Wakamoto Norio would be a better Ronove than him.

Are you serious? No, I can totally agree with you that he's a good VA.

But still. Brought out Ronove's personality? That hysterical laugh instead of 'pu ku ku'?
Dude, even Wakamoto Norio would be a better Ronove than him.

Sorry but for me he did bring out the character. And what hysterical laugh? I think you're confusing characters because Beato was the one who was hysterically laughing. Ronove was always doing a snickering pukuku in his scenes and always classy. I think Sugita did great.

Are you serious? No, I can totally agree with you that he's a good VA.

But still. Brought out Ronove's personality? That hysterical laugh instead of 'pu ku ku'?
Dude, even Wakamoto Norio would be a better Ronove than him.

Yeah, um, what the hell are you talking about? He didn't have a hysterical laugh. I can't even think of a single instance in which you could ever describe him as hysterical. "I do not think that word means what you think it means ..."

He played Ronove as he extremely restrained and sort of darkly mischievous, exactly as he's supposed to be.